Relentless JoySample

In our hustle, busy, and overworked culture, we know all about ambition. Ambition is an applauded characteristic of an individual that we often associate with success and riches. This determination to achieve is not all bad. Paul does not warn us against ambition, but selfish ambition. This is the determination to achieve only for oneself.

God, however, made us 'to live in community with one another', so we will not find true joy in working for our own desires. We may find temporary pleasure in manufacturing a life that we think we want, but we then forfeit the more abundant life Christ offers that’s greater than anything we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)

My manufactured happiness would have been a fast-paced, independent career woman quickly climbing her way up the corporate ladder. So it’s funny how I’ve found joy in simply being home with my kids because that’s what God called me to do.

Maybe for you, it is a fast-paced career, running your own business, being a professional athlete, working at a 9-5, or leading a women’s Bible Study. Whatever it is, be ambitious about what God has called you to do, not only what you think happiness is.

We all have this idea of what we think will make us happy, and we’re tempted to spend our whole lives working toward that happiness. But true joy is not found in seeking happiness. True joy is found in seeking God.

Many times, it’s our trying to make ourselves happy that’s stealing our joy, harming our relationships, and getting us off focus. We don’t need to find joy when joy has already found us. A selfishly ambitious life will not lead to joy: a life spent seeking the One who gives joy- will!